I love this Melissa. It gives me hope to carry on. I have an inordinate amount of work ahead too. Never plant a "Pink Surprise" rose. It has taken over one bed it is in. It reminds me of "Mermaid" which I have never had, but hear is overwhelming. I have milkweed taking over. I love Monarchs, but it is a huge trimming job every Spring. I would never dream of trying to prune my ramblers.

Voles drive me crazy with their nibbling on the rose canes. I also hate borers and stem girdlers. Bulbs except daffodils are mostly hopeless here because of the ground squirrels eating them I think. I could go on and on but you get the idea. This is 5 acres, and I am maxed out. I think I have 300 roses.

You have a way with words that is unique here, Melissa. Without pictures the imagination is allowed to run free, and mine has ranged all over your property, no doubt totally inaccurately, but no matter. The pleasure your writing gives is a unique gift.

Sheila, I knew you had many roses, but 300? How I'd love to stand in the middle of all this beauty in the spring.

Glad to hear forum members are enjoying this: thanks!

Sheila, I so well know about critters that eat bulbs!! Have you looked for other members of the family Amaryllidaceae? Nothing bothers snowdrops, for example. Also, bulb-loving animals don't eat cyclamen, which are most delightful plants. I also manage to grow grape hyacinths and scillas, though I don't know whether that's just because they haven't come to the attention of bulb devourers. I was surprised when a colony of highly poisonous colchicums got gobbled up, with no dead porcupine body as a consequence. Anyway, there are others you might try.

I'm impressed with your three hundred roses, and utterly unsurprised at your work load. If my tales of my own labors, and their rewards, help, so much the better. Five acres and all those plants is a mighty big job.

It's a rainy morning, and oh, I want to go on again about the garden.

Sheila, when suggesting plants I probably didn't adequately consider your climate. How about warmint-resistant native bulbs?

We had a run of beautiful sunny days, tolerably warm, and now Mother Nature is watering her world, saving us the trouble of wielding the hose. The abundant rain of this year has been a delight. I frequently go down in the woods below the shade garden to have a look around. There are a couple of small drainages running through the woods, with water in them now, and the little intermittent spring flowing. Down in the woods, as in the delta in the big garden, I've been blocking the drainages, seeing the results in small accumulations of sediment. The soil of the woods, the site of an old, big landslide, is thin, rocky, and netted with roots, but things grow there. The native green hellebore that I introduced there some years ago seeds discreetly, probably placing its offspring in more suitable spots that I could identify. This is an elegant plant, and the foliage that comes in after the flowers is tropically lush and handsome. Also my Cyclamen cilicium is holding its own in the woods, spreading slowly, along with a few C. hederifolium that I perhaps unwisely introduced, bigger and more quickly spreading than its Turkish cousin. I only recently discovered that C. hederifolium is native to the northern Apennines, though not found in our province. The two species have similar vegetative cycles.

Every year at this season I go through violet madness. The sweet violet is everywhere, a perfumed as its name suggests. The dominant colors are violet, of course, and white, but other shades pop up: light blue for example--invasive, those--and I have a beloved patch of neon red-violet that I guard like the treasure it is. At times I've bought cultivated varieties, and these hang on for some years at least; some forever, like the soft pink 'Rosea'. Some of these seed offspring that look like themselves--'Sulfurea', 'Coeur d'Alsace'--and finally disapper, while others seem to pass on at least part of their looks to their offspring. I have red-violet, long-stemmed, highly fragrant violets that I think are descendants of a plant bought twenty years ago. I would adore to have a secure place to plant the adorable Parma violets. 'Marie Louise' hung on for years, but was finally shaded out, and I never had luck with the others. They need a warmish spot out of direct sun, rich soil, and no competition.

I could say more about violets, not to mention everything else, but will stop here.

Everybody, have a good Saturday!

Oh, Melissa, what a delight!

I do hope to keep at the native plant hunting, but at the moment am infuriated with the voles damaging and killing rose canes here. This varmint deterring is not for sissies. I am trying to cut back perennials and milkweed and tidy up the roses.

I am not sure how much to prune on some damaged canes. Some canes look like hell, but are still productive. The sun and heat are the most damaging to canes beside the rodent damage.

My lilacs are coming along. The lavender, gaura and euphorbia never give up. I do have to trim back my entry plants next winter, because they are getting overgrown. I have never pruned the wisteria. I wish I had 6 gardeners like Ninfa.

There is such pleasure in reading about plants that I'll never have, and I'm longing to smell those violets which for some reason remind me of my long-ago childhood in Austria.

Sheila, I'm grieved about the predation of your roses and hope that only a very few will succumb, if any. Nature seems to always have the last word and somehow we have to try to align our expectations along with it.

Good morning! It rained all night, and is forecast to rain all day, which I'm glad about--those who are in flood zones, perhaps less--and then temperatures are forecast to rise as the sun comes out. Then it will be high spring.

Sheila, I too fantasize about having a gardener. Actually, I could afford to hire one for a day or so at least to catch up; it's a matter of organizing myself to find someone.

About the varmints, I take it you don't own a dog? Our animal damage went way up after ours died; while he was alive, at night he would go to the door and ask to be let out, then go roaring into the dark. Cats might be good for small pests, except that I suppose you have coyotes.

I'm glad you have lilacs. They're a favorite shrub of mine, and do well here, especially the line we have at the downhill border of our property in the big garden. But, with climate change, I don't know whether we'll continue to have the chill hours they need to bloom. I love lavender, too, but ours tend to get overrun with grass, and I don't cut them back as I ought to.

Ingrid, I suppose your conditions don't allow growing sweet violets. I understand about missing childhood plants. I grew up in Florida, and still have moments of loss thinking about that world.

The rain is truly wonderful. I've been trying to get out to my land as much as possible; I'm working on setting up drip irrigation. Sad to say, I don't have much energy or strength with my hip in this condition, but I do the best I can.

Critters are one of the worst pests! Sheila, might it be worth while to consider getting a cat or dog, since voles are small and mouse-like,or even just inviting a friend's dog over for a couple days a week? (I doubt a cat would tolerate that, but dogs might be ok with it)

Eventually I'll have to find someone willing to lend a hand, but this year my main concern is just keeping things watered.

Melissa, I love lilacs, too,but the only ones I have are suckers of wild ones dug up from existing plants that are in the town where we lived before. I chose those from plants that did flower,but none of mine have ever flowered at all. I'm afraid to invest in buying any, because of the fear that they couldn't bloom with the warm temperatures. I've got wild violets, too, but reading your post makes me think that perhaps I should invest in getting some fancy ones.

Bart, good to hear from you. I'm glad you're enjoying the rain. So am I: I wandered down into the woods today and loved the water, water everywhere, including coming down as mild rain. I fiddled around adding sticks and rocks to the little dams/blockages of the drainages, and though I wasn't exactly playing in the water, it came close.

About your non-flowering lilacs, I couldn't say if it's climate, or the plants not being big enough, or what. Many, probably most of mine were started from suckers, and they grow and bloom fine, so I doubt yours being started that way is the problem.

The cultivated sweet violets are worth getting, and they're not expensive either. I also keep my eyes open as I go about, and if I see some wild violets I particularly like, I take a bit of them home.

I hope you get to feeling better as time passes. I hope I get to feeling better as time passes. I think a lot of us could use some help that way.

I got communist lilacs from Peter Schneider, bred in Moscow, and they bloom well here. I am not holding the recent troubles against the lilacs. Kolesnikov was the breeder.

I also have two little dogs but they are in with us at night and have a low rodent killing record.

Right: you need a terrorist-terrier or similar. Our dog was of hunting dog ancestry and was death on critters. Our lilacs are mostly classic, common European-bred kinds, plus the species, and they too bloom well. ( I do have 'Beauty of Moscow' which has made it into the mainstream.) Your lilacs sound interesting.

My little failures, Tiger & Jackie.